Yeah, I'm interested in knowing the difference, too! And which of the two is older, or are they about the same age?
JJ

Here on the farm we sell seedlings for both the Red Brandywine and the Pink Brandywine which are completely different tomatoes...similar in name only. We grow the Suddeth strain Pink Brandywine along with the Landis Valley Red Brandywine tomato. The Pink is a larger beefsteak type with potato leaves, nice sweet balanced flavor, fruit average 12 ounce, originally introduced in 1889 by Johnson and Stokes Seed Co. The Red Landis Valley is a slightly smaller 8 ounce average, less sweet but with a wonderful flavor, higher production and is originally from Chester County Pennsylvania introduced in 1885. They are quite different but both are great. Give them a try.

Blueflint

Ah! My wife found a Red Brandywine at Roger's Garden (a famous nursery in Newport Beach, CA) yesterday. It's potato-leafed, by the way.

I also acquired a Pink Brandywine from a fellow tomato enthusiast... potato-leafed.

Hopefully, I will have fruit to compare from these storied varietals.

Thanks for the information!

Hey Johnpeter; You need to check with the company that distributed the plants to "Roger's Garden". They made the same erronneous mis=listing last year as well here in CA. The Potato-leaf plant is Not Red Brandywine. It is actually the Pink that they are offering as the red. There is no PL Red Brandywine.

Whatever it is, give it plenty of room. They really spread out, and it is hard to pick them otherwise.

It's important to be able to get really close to examine the tomatoes as they ripen, because the coloring is a bit misleading. They tend to be riper than they look. They are also quite large and wrap around the stem a bit, and fix themselves firmly to the stems, so you need a decent place to stand near them while you pry the tomatoes from the branches if you don't want to damage the branches.

Correction to re: post by zebraman that probably should have read 'no red potato leafed Brandywines at Roger's Garden. Very well could be, but the Brandywine seeds listed at Tomato Growers Supply list a red and the OTV that are both potato leaf reds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Growers Supply

I bought some "red brandywine" from Walmart one year and when they came up they were potato leafed, pink brandywine. I think some of the seed companies don't even know the difference or don't care. They know people will buy the seed either way because it says brandywine. I got my true Red Brandywine seed from Heirloom Seeds in Pennsylvania and it is the best tomato I've ever had.

I agree they are both excellent tomatos. I prefer the red. I think the pink is a little to sweet.

There are three Red Brandywines
1)Original variety from Landis County PA (with links to Amish). This is a regular leaf plant and may be the descendant of "Brandywine" sold by seed companies in the late 1800s. Amish bought seeds from the company and then someone got seeds from Amish families later, and even later than that it got to the seed company (from a nonamish source) that originally marketed it so is it an Amish Heirloom?. This variety is in fact somewhat rare because the market was flooded with #2 Red Brandywine for a while while the only one small heirloom seed company sold the original.

2) Red Brandywine, regular leaf. Not Landis strain. hit the market in recent times from parts unknown to me (some commercial seed farm distributed it to several seed venders).

3) Potatoleaf Red Brandywine. Mislabeled variety from Seeds by Design seed farm. Unusual in that it is one of very few varieties (only one on the market now?) having red fruits on a potatoleaf plant.

All of the pink potatoleaf varieties originated with Dorris Sudduth as a family heirloom (at least 100 years ago by now). Seedsman Ben Quisenberry in Ohio got seeds from her and distributed them, but it is probable that there was some crossing in Quisenberry's garden and the variety was not stable, so from that point on several strains of the pink have developed. One of the best of these was stabilized by a small seed company on on Long Island and is known as Brandywine Sudduth's strain 9or Quisenberry strain).

The modern term "Brandywine" refers to the pink potatoleaf variety. Others are "Red Brandywine". Anything else with Brandywine in the name is a cross with Brandywine or Red Brandywine as a parent.

Shah was a sport of Mikado (somatic mutation changing color from pink to yellow). Both are potatoleaf, and neither is red so they could not be parents of Red Brandywine. Mikado was one of the earliest pink potatoleaf commercial varieties, so it could be the origin of the Brandywine grew by the Sudduth family, but since the names are not the same it is only speculation, and there is no way to link it to a specific breeder or seed seller.